Serving Our Survivors on Campus through Research: A Phenomenological Study on Doctoral Graduates Conducting Sexual Assault Research at Post-Secondary Institutions of Higher Education in the United States

The U.S. Department of State's Office of Civil Rights (OCR) and the Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 set the guidelines that colleges and universities are required to follow for reporting sexual assault in order to receive federal financial assistance. A university's Title IX compliance office offers a safe place for students to file a complaint against a college or university for mishandling their reported cases of sexual assault. Despite the existence of federal regulations and dedicated university staff to the task of adequately and efficiently handling cases of sexual assault, the number of reported cases of sexual assault on college campuses is uncharacteristically low. Negative social pressure, an unclear definition of rape, extensive physical harm, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are psychological factors that result from non-reporting of these incidents, which have profound effects on the student survivor's academic progress. With students reporting fewer instances of sexual assault, the services for student survivors who do report their assault continue to dwindle, leaving student survivors feeling betrayed by their institutions and struggling to cope with the effects of their assault in the midst of their academic career. Being denied the opportunity to interview survivors, phenomenological research was instead conducted on the lived experiences of doctoral students who were able to conduct their dissertation research on issues surrounding campus sexual assault. This study evaluated the data of extensive phenomenological research on the lived experiences of five doctoral students who conducted their dissertation research on issues surrounding campus sexual assault and institutional barriers they experienced when conducting their research. The results of this study revealed that the doctoral students interviewed did in fact experience some form of institutional barrier when conducting their research on campus sexual assault. The three themes that emerged from the data recommend that doctoral researchers can first expect their IRB committee to have negative initial reaction to their research and redirect key aspects of their research. Second, the researcher must already have pre-established relationships in the field of sexual assault to be able to complete their research and identify participants. Third and lastly, the IRB committee became critical of retraumatization of the survivors being interviewed which deterred research and diminished the student survivor's voice in the research. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]